The Swiss People’s Party (SVP), the largest party in Switzerland, is seeking to introduce new racist legislation that would allow for the entire family of any immigrant child convicted of a crime to be deported immediately.
If passed, it would be the first such law in Europe since the Nazi practice of Sippenhaft—”kin liability”—whereby relatives of people convicted of a crime were held responsible and punished equally. (The Daily Mail, Sept. 7)
The SVP is seeking to whip up support for its xenophobic deportation scheme with posters that show three white sheep booting a black sheep off of the Swiss flag. This campaign coincides with another SVP-led proposal to ban the building of Muslim minarets.
Anti-immigrant racism is becoming widespread in Switzerland—where immigrants compose 25 percent of the total workforce—and all over Europe. France went up in flames in December 2005 and again in March 2006 when immigrant workers and families, confronted with similar racism, rebelled.
